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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

As many of you have probably discovered with home projects, they take about twice as long and cost twice as much as you think they will (bummer!). But man, when one gets done, it's a great feeling! We had this sigh of relief recently with our first home makeover project in the new house - the master bathroom.

The master bathroom definitely left a little to be desired when we started. First of all, the sink and vanity area was completely open to the bedroom. Such a staple of 80s houses.

View walking into the master bedroom.

To the left is the toilet/shower & to the right is the closet.

Toilet and shower area (the left).

Don't mind our messy closet! (the right)

Ugly mirror, ugly cabinets, and ancient vent and light switch. Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us. We started off by fixing the little things.

New light switch

and new vent/light combo!

Turns out, electrical wiring is a mystery meant only for geniuses and definitely not for us. Good thing Dad knows a lot about wiring! The late night frantic phone call went something like this:

Me: "Okay, there are 3 black wires and 1 white wire coming out of the wall and we have a red, blue, yellow and black one on the switch. HELP."

And somehow he knew exactly what to do. Genius! With only minor frustration, we got the new vent and light switch in. Oh, and some minor surgery on the opening in the ceiling.

Next, that mirror. Nothing can ruin a bathroom like an ugly mirror and I hate the plain Jane mirrors with no character. Especially when they are cemented to the wall. After reading some tutorials on how to remove a mirror without shattering it and inevitable getting speared with breaking glass, we were ready to go.

Tape on mirror to prevent shattering? Check. Protective eye wear? Check. Then we pried and prayed it wouldn't break. And with some luck, it came off the wall in one piece. Who knew they used so much glue to hold up a mirror?! It even took some of the texture and drywall off with it. Good grief.

Next came paint, which was fairly easy. In place of the sandy brown/tan/pinkish/yellowish terrible color, the bathroom is now a pleasant light blue (pic above on the right).

The next big issue was to somehow make the bathroom not completely open to the bedroom. And you probably won't believe me when I tell you what we did. Stay tuned for part 2 and updated pictures. That is, if we make it out alive!